1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for entering data into computers and, in particular, to a keyboard for entering data into computers by pressing the keys of the keyboard singly and in combination.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the beginning, there was Guttenberg and movable type. Man no longer had to chisel characters into stone or laboriously hand draft them onto parchment. If someone had an idea, he need only write it down once and unlimited copies could be made; if someone needed knowledge, he could look it up in a book.
The development of civilization is directly linked to improvements in communication of information between people. Thus, printing led to the invention of the typewriter; the typewriter led to the invention of the computer.
Following the invention of the computer, the physical speed limits of communication were rapidly approached. People had always thought faster than their machines could be operated. For example, the typewriter keyboard was originally laid out in a manner that inhibited typing speed. The machine just couldn't keep up with the typist. To remedy this the QWERTY keyboard was developed.
With the computer, machines began thinking faster than people. The actual movement of fingers across a typewriter keyboard is now a serious physical limitation hampering the speed of data and information transfer. It is estimated that a good typist's fingers can travel from 12 to 20 miles in a day's work using standard QWERTY keyboards. The jumping and hurdling of fingers from key to key increases physical exertion by the typist. Additionally, significant mental effort is expended in finding proper key/finger registration. The registration problem is most pronounced in the case of a blind or handicapped typist. Furthermore, the traditional keyboard attains unwieldy proportions when adapted for symbolic alphabets, such as Chinese.
While almost everything else related to computers has become smaller, simpler, cheaper, and more efficient, keyboards have become larger, more complex, more expensive, and less efficient. Current keyboards can have almost one hundred keys: alphabetic, numeric keypad, cursor movement control, and function buttons. Touch typing on such keyboards is no longer possible. And one keying error can lose an operator hours of work. Moreover, these keyboard layouts are not standardized so that, as more different computers are used, more time must be spent learning the new layouts and more errors are endured during the learning.
There has been recognition in the prior art that keyboards have not evolved with advances in technology. Yet, the fastest modern computer, as one of its basic components, still has a primitive QWERTY keyboard for entering data.
About 50 years ago, August Dvorak introduced a simplified keyboard that grouped and centralized commonly used letters. Although there was some increase in speed, the system never caught on.
A more recent attempt at reorganizing the standard QWERTY keyboard has been made by Lillian Malt and Stephen Hobday in a system referred to as the Maltron system. The Maltron system offers no reduction in number of keys to be operated or in the amount of finger movement necessary to operate the keys. Although the Dvorak and Maltron keyboards are easier to use, they exhibit no new principle and are just as difficult to learn as the standard QWERTY keyboard. It is doubtful that business enterprises can justify the time it takes to train typists on these systems. It would take decades of slightly increased productivity resulting from such traning to recover the initial training cost.
A 12-key data entry system was proposed by Jarmann in U.S. Pat. No. 2,581,665. The system involved two hand-operated drums, each drum having 6 finger-operated keys. To enter data the operator's fingers pressed one of the 12 keys. The drums were rotated to four possible positions corresponding to four rows of keys. Thus, data entry required twisting the drums and pressing the keys in combination. This was a rather clumsy mechanical arrangement for operating a standard QWERTY keyboard with solenoids and motors. Basically an attempt to make manual typewriters into electric typewriters, this device was not successful.
A one-handed data entry device shown by Seibel in U.S. Pat. No. 3,220,878 takes the form of a glove worn over the operator's hand. The operator's fingers were moved to several different positions to generate different characters. Such a system is extremely fatiguing and registration is exceedingly difficult to learn.
Alferieff in U.S. Pat. No. 3,428,747, shows a condensed keyboard where the amount of finger movement is slightly reduced, although mental effort is increased significantly. Each finger was still responsible for several keys; the close proximity of the keys probably made frequent errors the rule rather than the exception when using the device.
A one-handed keyboard is suggested by Bequaert et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,777. Again, the operator must press several keys with each finger. Much mental effort is required to remember finger placement. Although the keys may be pressed in combination, there is still a significant amount of awkward finger movement required during operation. The proximity of the finger keys to each other makes operation of the keyboard confusing, fatiguing, and conducive to operator error. Additionally, the thumb is expected to be stretched across four keys while stretching the fingers across 10 keys with dozens of possible combinations. This is hardly a simplification of the standard QWERTY keyboard.